Experiment Walk Under the Moon
by Dusios
Summary: An experiment about TPP and suggestions. Not to be read.
1. Chapter 1

The first thing that the Exiled noticed was the blood in her mouth. Usually, his blood tasted like copper, but since the experiment, his blood tasted like mercury. Well, it wasn't really mercury, but if she were to drink mercury one day, she would expect it to taste like that thick blood in her mouth. Ignoring the horrible taste, she forced herself to swallow the blood, doing her best to not puke it out, as her mistress taught her.

Slowly, the Exiled woke up, moving her fingers one by one, stretching her body limb after limb, and finally opening her eyes. To her dismay, nothing changed since last time. The forest was still wild, the plants were still growing randomly, sometimes covering the trees and ensnaring them to death, sometimes covering the path. It was to be expected, and she should stop getting her hopes up. Things happen, people die, and the Earth is still spinning. No matter how many people die, nothing will ever change under the Sun.

Looking around, the Exiled saw the Vilified, sitting unconscious against a tree, covered in wounds, scratches and blood. Most of that blood wasn't Vilified's. The Exiled smiled to herself, she really tried hard to scorn that monster, and yet she couldn't help but admire the Vilified's persistence. Each time, while she would give up, sit and wait for the horror to happen, the Vilified would stand, grab anything, and fight. And each time, the horror would play with the Vilified's hope before crushing them and crushing the creature's body.

Slightly raising her dress, the Exiled jumped over a giant root to reach the Vilified. Slowly, gracefully, as if the woman was a princess, she would press her fingers against the Vilified's temples before casting a spell. And, one more time, the Vilified would start breathing again. One more time, the Exiled would revive the Vilified and keep walking. To Gensokyo.

* * *

Walking is certainly frustrating. When you are in a car or a train, you can relax yourself by watching the landscape, you can appreciate the speed by staring at visible landmarks, such as water tower, or bridges. When you're walking, you can't, because then you'll understand that you're slow, that you're going to walk for the whole day, and your morale will drop. So, just as discipline, morale was extremely important in the Exiled and the Vilified's journey.

"I think we'll be able to reach the end of the forest today. Starting tomorrow, we're walking in the open," said the Exiled. "In other words, we're getting near."

The Vilified nodded but didn't speak, so the Exiled saw no need to keep talking, and just stared at the sky. It was still the morning, but the sun was already quite hot. Spring was over, and summer was starting prematurely. The Exiled took a fan from her sleeve, and used it to hide a frown from the Vilified. She wasn't exactly looking forward to a long walk under the sun, but given what they both endured, it would be selfish from her to complain.

Unconsciously sighing, the Exiled played with her long black hair, then played a bit with her fan, then watched her clothes, making a mental list of the work she would be forced to do to stitch it back in one piece, still while walking.

When they finally left the forest, it was midday, and the sun was almost unbearable. They both wanted to give back and return in the forest, but the Exiled kept her words for herself and the Vilified kept walking, never stopping for a talk or a drink. They both remembered how atrocious the last night in the forest has been, therefore they were both on the same wavelength about sleeping in a forest.

Right now, they were leaving the forest for abandoned rice fields. It meant being knee-deep into mud while being constantly pestered by mosquito, but the Exiled kept her complains to herself and the Vilified kept the mouth closed. Both of them remembered how the Exiled got her head bitten off and thrown away like some ball with long black hair attached to it. And both of them remembered how the Vilified was killed, the monster's fangs tearing through the Vilified's white hair, breaking the skull piece after piece before the brain was finally torn off and thrown away like it was some garbage.

One could think that those attacks were useless, as the Exiled was eternal and constantly called back the Vilified, and yet they were not. No matter how long the Exiled would live, or how strong the Vilified's willpower was, sooner or later, one of them would break under the pain. The question was : who was going to break first? Would it be the Exiled, as she looked resigned to her fate each time the sun disappeared, or would it be the Vilified, as its frustration was slowly turning into blind hate?

Who was going to break first?

The white-haired murderer, or the black-haired princess?

* * *

Something changed. The Abomination could feel it. Not in his bones, he never had such things. Or did he...? Bah, there was no way to know, so it was useless to bother about it.

"Never bother about something you can't change." He recited from memory. That sentence was supposed to relax him, and yet it only brought more questions. Who taught him that? Where? And when? How did he looked like then?

The Abomination grew agitated. "Why?" He had no idea. He could feel that something changed, he could feel he was disturbed by something. "But what?"

Unsure, the Abomination stared at the Sun setting. The night was coming, he was supposed to be happy, and yet he couldn't. He was promised that, during the night, he could play with those people, each day he was looking forward to it as he watched the beautiful black-haired princess trying to follow that white-haired person. For the first time, he wondered what their story was. Were they married? Were they friends?

Something changed again, and he stopped thinking about trivial things. The night started, as the game. And the rules were simple. One more time, he was going to posses some local wildlife, turns it into a monster suiting his tastes, and then kill those people.


	2. Chapter 2

The corpse twitched, its finger bitten off, its legs torn into pieces, its head ripped off. And despite the ludicrous amount of damage, it was still living, the heart inside that ravaged chest was still beating, the massacred limbs were still waiting for the brain's messages. And yet, one more time, the Vilified was laying dead, chest against ground. One more time, the Vilified tried to fight and got horribly butchered by the vicious beast.

One the other side of the campfire, was the Exiled's body. Both of them, the Exiled and the Vilified, decided to make a fire yesterday. They knew it was stupid, as there was that beast following them, but both of them couldn't stand cold food. Once in a while, even an immortal strives for a hot meal. Oh, both of them paid dearly for that luxury, with the Exiled paying most. The monster, enraged by her resignation, shoved her head first in the fire, pressing her back with its legs until she stopped screaming.

Her flesh slowly regenerating, she started shaking as she remembered the pain from yesterday. They both had a hot meal, and they both paid for it. She was now sure of it, she couldn't withstand something like that again. If she were to have her face shoved in a fire again, her sanity would surely break under the pain, and everything would be over.

"Damnation. That really hurts."

She shook her head to get rid of the pain, while knowing it wouldn't be as efficient as a good old-fashioned aspirin. Then, she touched the Vilified's body, and stared at it while the dead body started living again. Soon, it would stand, look around, greet her with a groan, and start walking, leaving the blood and the dead campfire behind it.

"Can you see that?" Asked the woman as she pointed her finger at the visible smoke. The Vilified just nodded, not saying anything. "We're getting close to Gensokyo. Let's not give up now !" The Vilified just groaned, maybe in annoyance, or maybe in joy. It wasn't really easy to know what was on the Vilified's mind. Its was clearly determined to get into Gensokyo, but not even the Exiled, its unwilling partner in that journey, was aware of his plans.

Now that they were out of the forest, they were going way faster. Skipping the breakfast, they left the campfire behind them as they went further into the fallow fields. Before noon, they would reach their end, and they were going to welcome it, as the day was promising to be quite hot. Surely, walking head naked would be their undoing.

And, as they expected, the end of their journey was standing here, abandoned, forgotten, and decrepit. The Vilified moaned in surprise, as the long-expected Hakurei Shrine clearly wasn't how it expected it to be. "Disappointed?" Playfully asked the Exiled as the Vilified ignored her. "Well, that's the thing. The seal, I mean. The real shrine is currently hidden." That remark gained her the Vilified's attention. And finally, for the first time, he spoke.

"I can't destroy that border. I can feel it, but destroying it, by raw strength or mystical power is out of my reach."

The Exiled playfully winking at the Vilified. "We're not going to destroy it, milord. We're going to gently, softly, penetrate it. I assume you had experience with it."

"No longer call me like that."

"Why wouldn't I? I got an answer from you!" The Vilified ignored her and, jumping over the few steps, looked in the offering box, and groaned in annoyance. "Come on, try to take it easy. It's the end, we're almost done !"

While the Vilified ignored her and started exploring the old building, the Exiled sat on the offering box, moving her legs while watching the blue sky. Her thoughts were focused on her former house, far away from that decrepit shrine, and even further away from Gensokyo. In a way, it was really ironic : in order to go home, she had to go in the opposite direction.

On the bright side, the monster couldn't follow them in Gensokyo.

While the sun was slowly setting, the Vilified came back, his mood obviously brighter than before.

"You were right. This is that border's weak point. However, I sure hope you have a plan, as my point before still stands : I cannot open this."

The Exiled smiled at the worried Vilified. His spiritual powers were incredibly pathetic, he had trouble following a real discussion, and yet, during that travel, she accepted the idea of relying on such good-for-nothing being. And he, on the other hand, accepted the idea of relying on her without worrying about her reputation.

"I'll open it tomorrow, my lord, so grab something and stand your ground, as tonight will be our last night here."

The Vilified smiled. It was a rare sight to be treasured and remembered.

"Everywhere else will be fine. I do not know what that Gensokyo is, but if that thing cannot follow us, it will be like heaven."

Still smiling, the Vilified left the shrine and started a campfire in the middle of the old , abandoned clearing. He wanted to use the kitchen, but his common sense was against the idea of starting a fire, no matter how small, in an unclean kitchen. Especially after what happened last time. The pain has been horrible, and finding new clothes has been difficult too.

Once the fire was big enough, they started eating. The Exiled kept a carefree facade, but the Vilified's smile was gone for good, and he was constantly holding a huge log, swinging it in the air, or poking the fire with it. Both of them, in their own ways, were ready to fight and die, but the beast never came.

No giant, deformed, humanoid wolf pounced from the darkness. No horrible mutated boar jumped from a small hole. The monster that was possessing beasts to kill and be killed for it wasn't here tonight. They couldn't decide if it was a gift or a trick, and they wondered if it was waiting for them to sleep before slaughtering them.

Did it tried that before? They couldn't remember. There was that time when it attacked when the Exiled was sleeping, but the Vilified was fully awake then. Despite that, he was in pieces when she woke up the next morning, so the outcome was obvious. But then, after waiting and waiting, the Exiled finally gave up, and went to sleep while the Vilified just waited.

And when she woke up, it was to see something new. The Vilified was sitting against a tree, his eyes closed. The first thing she suspected was that the monster broke his neck or something like that, so, as usual, she stood up, walked to the dead Vilified, and touched him. But this time, he didn't moved.

So the Exiled waited. And waited. And started panicking as the Vilified wasn't moving. Usually, his neck would snap as it was putting itself back together. Any torn limb would crawl back to his body, and the Vilified would open his eyes and live again. But this time, nothing happened.

In the end, she eventually gave up to the panic, the Exiled grabbed the Vilified's shoulders and started shaking him, finally waking him up.

Gensokyo was waiting for them.


End file.
